To be honest, I downloaded this book and encouraged myself to read it because of its title. I was intrigued by the title. For a kind of me that loves action movies and novels, the word ‘assassination’ got my interest. I should really give a shout out to the editor and marketers, or anyone who came up with the book title, that’s such an amazing skill you have there. I must commend !
Let’s talk about this book.
Is it about the ‘Margaret Thatcher’ that we know?
Was there actually a Margret Thatcher there ?
Who was assassinated? That’s if anyone was at all
Our new site is thenightwalka.com . Click here to view.
The book comprises 10 different short stories, all narrated by Mrs. Mantel, each story bearing its own unique narrative and exploration.
The first chapter: Sorry to Disturb was set in 1983, Saudi Arabia. It narrated about a married woman who is struggling with unwelcome advances from a Muslim man – Muhammad Ijaz, who has the aim of marrying her. At first, he had come like he needed a place to rest a bit and drink water, but the continuous unannounced visitation made Mrs. Mantel lock her door, hiding from the stranger who doesn’t want to read the handwriting on the wall. According to Ijaz, which he revealed during one of his unwelcomed visitation, he is a businessman, a graduate of Miami Business School, and married to an American lady, whom he plans to divorce very soon (not minding that she had just been diagnosed of kidney disease).
At last, Mrs. Mantel had to plead with her husband to write to Ijaz to stop coming to the house. His presence not only disturbs her writings and time with her husband, but fouls the space. It was a feeling she couldn’t take anymore, although sympathetic.
In the short story “Comma,” two kids realise that first impressions aren’t always accurate when they stumble upon another kid who has a physical abnormality and become friends with him.
In the third chapter “The Long QT”, an undiagnosed cardiac problem takes the life of a married woman the moment she learns that her husband is going to have an affair, but before she can get the condition treated.
Before she found out, the husband, having felt attracted to a lady called Lorraine, didn’t mind if his wife caught them together in their house. As he thought, if she sees them, he’d quietly ask her not to make a scene, to take a deep breath and be more French about it (probably to suck it up; as it’s no big deal). But when Jodie the wife did faint from the dreadful adulterous sight that beheld her, it was the husband who ran to help her off the floor, crunching off the flakes of the shattered glass like they were ice. But nothing could revive her.
To the ambulance and medical personnels, he cried, lamenting how it was lust and childish defiance that led him to such an act. But to himself, we don’t know if it was sincere, or if it helped when the doctors announced the diagnosis: Long QT syndrome. A disorder of the heart’s electrical activity, which leads to arrhythmia, and in certain circumstances leads to cardiac arrest.
Nobody was interested in the sate of his mind, at least not the way they would have been if he had been arrested for the murder of his wife in more obvious ways.
Winter Break: for Phil the husband, he prefers to take a winter break during school terms when hotel rates are lower. Although married, he doesn’t like children, whom according to him cost a lot, and are unbearably agitating. Still on their way, their driver who would feel calm by a thrust of cigarette, suddenly stopped the car and pulled out an object which made the couple fright. But it was a rock and rope which he used for the car.
When they try to hide the evidence of a murder, it was the married couple who were complicit in the killing of another person. And they choose to conceal it because they do not wish for its occurrence to disrupt their trip. However, it couldn’t remain hidden, when, on getting to their final destination, the taxi driver leaned to scoop their second traveling bag from the trunk. What he saw, he could not unsee – the grubby hand of a human child.
Chapter Five: “Harley Street,” a receptionist who is quite nosy about the goings-on at a doctor’s office is oblivious to the fact that all of the patients are vampires.
The film “Offences Against a Person”
At seventeen years old, her father had a mistress by the name Nicolette Bland, who was just nine years older than she. Oftentimes, the father would send her away from the office, and while they waited for him to come back at night, he would return with a stench of alcohol. He was with the mistress even when they went to the court to witness a case between a landlord and a customer, whom he’s accused of beating up. But regardless of the tactic used by the court or the prosecutor, the landlord was ready to defend himself, as he had called upon friends and neighbours to witness his defense at the law court. But he didn’t help as he caused disruption at the courtroom corridor; shouting and hallooing. Still, Nicolette; the father’s mistress found her way to the courthouse, in search of her father. The night before, they argued whether she was foreign or not, whether her caramel skin was real or not, but sitting close to her now, all she could see was an ugly mottling of frustration, spreading crimson to where the buttons of her silk blouse started.
One night, hell broke loose between her parents, but she’s already accustomed to their often disagreements. They had both gone upstairs in a fight over the pregnant mistress. The only defense she can give is silence: stuffing her ears with cotton wool. But that couldn’t stop the noise from the kitchen as her mother constantly hit the glass table till it shattered.
Not even the twins she bore stoped the man from seeing another lady.
It is a narrative of a girl who is seventeen years old when she watches as her father divorces her mother for a younger woman, only to repeat his behaviour with another younger woman.
In the story “How Shall I Know You?,” an older writer shows contempt and cruelty by leaving a twenty-pound tip for a malformed young girl who works at the inn where she is staying. However, the favour is returned some months later, leaving the older writer to wonder which of her flaws prompted the terrible gesture.
I’m the short story: The Heart Fails Without Warning, tells about a young woman who has been anorexic; serving as a metaphor for her own family.
A family has two girls, who often don’t get along well. Now the younger girl hated the fact that she was born three years after her older sister, who although was fat before, is becoming thin. For the younger sister, that’s a good sign of growth, and she doesn’t mind if her previous greedy sister loses some space in her body.
By their parents’ strict training, the girls were not allowed to use the internet, because it corrupts Morna the elder sister, and also because it’s used by the bad students at school internet bullying and other atrocities.
The weight loss continued, day after day; so gross that you could count Morna’s ribs if she stretches. Jokes here and there were made against her by her sister who compared her to a biology skeleton, and even though their mother had hidden the long mirror in the room to save Morna from feeling ashamed of her body, the opposite was true and nothing changed. Their mother was often worried as each day got worse than the previous.
It wasn’t so funny, because not even the child cared that she’s sick and needs quick medical attention. Strategies adopted by her parents to help her weight gain process were thwarted by herself – Morna, as she doesn’t like food, and detest her sister who still remains fat.
Not even the Nutrition Units could revive her. With no more jokes and more feeding, her bones were still more exposed and sharper than before, the blades of her shoulder like a blazing knife. She couldn’t live any longer.
The heart fails without warning.
The story “Terminus” follows a young man as he travels on a train in an effort to find the spirit of his deceased father. However, he comes to the realisation that in the end, no matter where people go or what they do in life, everyone is bound for a terminus of some type, with death being the final endpoint.
The title of the book is taken from the play “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher,” which is featured on the front cover. The story recounts how an assassin for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) moves into the flat of a lady and kills Margaret Thatcher after he has gained control of the flat. Even though she feels that resorting to violence is never the answer to a problem, the woman whose flat is broken into ends up assisting the perpetrator of the crime in devising a plan of escape.
Our new site is thenightwalka.com . Click here to view.
Just Good News 